The global economic system is near collapse, according to Pope Francis.

An economy built on money-worship and war and scarred by yawning inequality andyouth unemployment cannot survive, the 77-year-old Roman Catholic leader suggested in a newly published interview.

“We are excluding an entire generation to sustain a system that is not good,” he toldLa Vanguardia’s Vatican reporter, Henrique Cymerman. (Read an English translation here.) “Our global economic system can’t take any more.”

The pontiff said he was especially concerned about youth unemployment, which hit 13.1 percent last year, according to a report by the International Labor Organization.

"The rate of unemployment is very worrisome to me, which in some countries is over 50 percent," he said. "Someone told me that 75 million young Europeans under 25 years of age are unemployed. That is an atrocity."

That 75 million is actually the total for the whole world, according to the ILO, but that is still too much youth unemployment.

Pope Francis denounced the influence of war and the military on the global economy in particular:

“We discard a whole generation to maintain an economic system that no longer endures, a system that to survive has to make war, as the big empires have always done,” he said.

"But since we cannot wage the Third World War, we make regional wars," he added. "And what does that mean? That we make and sell arms. And with that the balance sheets of the idolatrous economies -- the big world economies that sacrifice man at the feet of the idol of money -- are obviously cleaned up."

Pope Francis is gaining a reputation for pointed comments on the global economy. In April, amid feverish media coverage of French economist Thomas Piketty's bombshell book on income inequality, he made clear his stance on the widening wealth gap with a tweet saying: "Inequality is the root of social evil."

Fittingly, the pope commemorated Thursday's kick-off game of the World Cup – a global tournament that has so far cost host nation Brazil at least $15 billion and sparked violent protest by the country’s disenfranchised poor – with this message to his 4.14 million Twitter followers:

Pope Francis ✔ @Pontifex Follow I wish everyone a wonderful World Cup, played in a spirit of true fraternity. 2:30 AM - 12 Jun 2014

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Security at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad was bolstered and some staff members were being moved out of Iraq's capital city as it was threatened by the advance of by an al-Qaida inspired insurgency, a State Department spokeswoman said Sunday.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement that much of the U.S. embassy staff will stay in place even as parts of the country experience instability and violence. She did not specify the number of personnel affected by the shift. The embassy is within Baghdad's Green Zone. It has about 5,000 personnel, making it the largest U.S. diplomatic post in the world.

"Overall, a substantial majority of the U.S. Embassy presence in Iraq will remain in place and the embassy will be fully equipped to carry out its national security mission," she said.

Some embassy staff members have been temporarily moved elsewhere to more stable places at consulates in Basra in the Shiite-dominated south of Iraq and Irbil in the Kurdish semi-autonomous region in northeastern Iraq and to Jordan, she said.

U.S. travelers in the country were encouraged to exercise caution and limit travel to certain parts of Iraq.

"Due to the relocation of personnel from Baghdad, the embassy will only be restricted in its ability to offer all consular services; but emergency services are always available to U.S. citizens in need at any embassy or consulate anywhere in the world," Psaki said.

Raw: Police, Military Tighten Baghdad SecurityPlay Video

Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said in a statement that a "small number" of military personnel are helping to keep State Department facilities safe in Baghdad. He said embassy personnel are being moved by commercial, charter and State Department aircraft. But, Kirby says, the U.S. military has "airlift assets at the ready" should the State Department request them. A military official said about 150 Marines have been sent to aid with security and are already at the embassy.

Islamic militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, have captured large swaths of territory north of Baghdad. Their advance on the Iraqi capital was prompting tighter security in the city of 7 million people.

The State Department acted as the Iraqi government sought to bolster its defenses in Baghdad on Sunday. Despite the added security, a string of explosions killed at least 15 people and wounded more than 30 in the city, police and hospital officials said. And, an Islamic militant group behind the strife posted graphic photos that appeared to show its fighters massacring dozens of captured Iraqi soldiers.

U.S. State Department spokesman Jen Psaki said the ISIL militants' claim of killing the Iraqi troops "is horrifying and a true depiction of the bloodlust that those terrorists represent."

She added that an ISIL claim that 1,700 Iraqi troops were killed in Tikrit could not be confirmed by the U.S. Tikrit is the hometown of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

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White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama on Sunday was briefed on the situation by National Security Adviser Susan Rice as he was spending Father's Day in Rancho Mirage, California, where he was taking a brief vacation.

Secretary of State John Kerry made calls to foreign ministers in Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar to discuss the threat and the need for Iraqi leaders to work together.

Earlier Sunday, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki cannot keep his country together, and a U.S. alliance with Iran might be needed to do so.

Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said a U.S. partnership with longtime foe Iran makes him uncomfortable but likened it to the United States working with Soviet leader Josef Stalin in World War II against Adolf Hitler. He says the United States has to do what it can to keep Baghdad from falling to insurgents.

Iran says it has no interest in a destabilized Iraq as its neighbor.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier to move from the northern Arabian Sea and it has arrived in the Persian Gulf as President Barack Obama considers possible military options for Iraq — although he has ruled out the possibility of putting American troops on the ground in Iraq. Kirby has said the move will give Obama additional flexibility if military action were required to protect American citizens and interests in Iraq.

The carrier was accompanied by the guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea and the guided-missile destroyer USS Truxtun, which carry Tomahawk missiles that could reach Iraq.

In a phone call Saturday with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Kerry said U.S. assistance "would only be successful if Iraqi leaders were willing to put aside differences and implement a coordinated and effective approach to forge the national unity necessary to move the country forward and confront the threat of ISIL," according to a statement by the State Department.

Graham spoke to CNN's "State of the Union" and CBS' "Face the Nation."

The move seemingly ends the nation's policy of trying to negotiate to end years of fighting.
U.S. has long pushed for operation

A woman sits on an armoured personnel vehicle during a rally demanding official information from the Ukrainian government on their work in the 100 days since they took power, at Independence Square in Kiev June 8, 2014. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

By Timothy Heritage and Alessandra Prentice

KIEV/DONETSK Ukraine (Reuters) - Church bells rang out over Kiev's Maidan square and hundreds of mourners bowed their heads in silence on Sunday, a national day of mourning, to honor 49 Ukrainian servicemen killed by pro-Russian separatists.

But some 600 km (375 miles) away to the east in the city of Donetsk, heart of an armed insurgency against central rule by Kiev, there were few signs of mourning as people enjoyed a lazy stroll, sipped coffee in cafes and watched their children play.

Few events illustrate more clearly the bitter chasm that has opened up between east Ukraine and the rest of the country of 45 million. Heroes to some, the 49 killed when a missile hit their plane on Saturday were enemies to others.

"I feel desperate, like it's a betrayal. I don't know what I can do to help," Volodymyr Radchenko, an engineer in his fifties, said on the Maidan, cradle of an uprising which ousted Ukraine's Moscow-backed president in February.

Nearby, an Orthodox priest led prayers on a stage, flanked by men in black masks and camouflage fatigues.

Radchenko's depressed mood and sense of helplessness are shared by many in Kiev, whose euphoria over Viktor Yanukovich's overthrow as president has given way to dismay as Russia annexed Crimea in March and separatists rose up in the east in April.

"I'm very worried," said choreographer Iryna Zhadan, starting to weep. "I cry and pray a lot for the dead soldiers."

WORRIES ABOUT THE FUTURE

More than 100 protesters were killed in clashes on and around the Maidan before their hate figure, Yanukovich, fell. Makeshift shrines have been erected around the square and some protesters are still camping out on its edges, worried about the fragile peace and the direction the country is taking.

Ukraine now has a pro-European leadership and a new president, Petro Poroshenko, who has intensified a military campaign in the east since being elected on May 25 but has also launched tentative peace talks with a Russian envoy.

He has promised a tough response to the shooting down of the plane which some say is needed to crush the separatists but others fear could lead to all-out war with rebels armed with tanks which Kiev and Washington say come from Russia.

Moscow denies backing the rebels. Facing the possibility of further Western sanctions, it disavows any plan for a military invasion to absorb mainly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.

But some Ukrainians still fear Russia and the West could fight a proxy war in Ukraine and would rather let the rebellious regions of Donetsk and Luhansk go than face such a conflict.

"It's awful. I just don't understand why we need Donetsk and Luhansk," said Lyudmila Shevchenko, a 60-year-old Kiev resident. "If they like it without us, let them live on their own and we won't send our children to their deaths."

The downing of the military plane as it came in to land at the airport outside Luhansk killed more government servicemen than any other incident since the conflict began.

It has increased tension as Moscow and Kiev try to agree how much Ukraine should pay for Russian gas before a Monday deadline for Kiev to pay $1.95 billion in debts or have its gas cut off, that could disrupt flows to the rest of Europe.

It also fuelled a violent protest at the Russian embassy in Kiev and a diplomatic spat over insulting comments by Ukraine's foreign minister about President Vladimir Putin. [ID:nL5N0OW0GX]

EAST DOES NOT MOURN

But few sympathizers could be found in east Ukraine, where leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) ignored Poroshenko's call for a day of mourning and did not arrange a minute's silence to remember the victims.

"We could hold a day of mourning every day for the children and ordinary citizens who are dead because of the Ukrainians," a DPR spokesman said. "In Kiev they're mourning the deaths of soldiers who were coming here to kill innocent people - it's unbelievable ... If they don't want soldiers to die, they shouldn't have violated Luhansk airspace."

In Donetsk, an industrial hub of one million people, there was as much discussion of the soccer World Cup in Brazil as of the shooting down of the plane. Many regard the Anti-Terrorist Operation, stepped up by Poroshenko, as driving a deeper rift between Ukrainians.

"They wanted a war, now they can have it. War brings casualties and they have to face that," said Zina Demyanova, 60, an accountant.

Sergei, a 35-year-old waiter, described the downing of the plane as a "legitimate military victory".

"I'm not sorry. I'm not mourning. We wanted to be acknowledged (by Kiev), the east (of Ukraine) wanted only that, and they sent their killers instead," he said.

A retired administrative clerk who gave her name only as Iryna was among the few questioned by Reuters in the east who said openly they regretted the loss of life on both sides.

"This (war) is nonsense, murder. I was crying last night and I cry every day ever since this madness started because all these people have mothers and families and children," she said.

Others suggest few people are prepared to speak out against the rebels in the east because they are afraid.

"It's a horrible day and I am honestly mourning. They killed 49 people in cold blood, people who came to protect their country from this backward lot," said a student who gave her name only as Svetlana.

"You know, there are people in Donbass (the coal mining area of east Ukraine) who do not support this madhouse here and we are begging Kiev to rescue us."

(Additional reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic in Donetsk and by Natalia Zinets, Pavel Polityuk and Margarita Chornokondratenko in Kiev, Writing by Timothy Heritage; Editing by Gareth Jones)